Regarding the disappearance of the two National Team members, the most distressed was the Wonderful Life production team.
Originally, the two members were only supposed to stay for one day, but they left half a day early, directly causing the production team's original plan to go fishing with the Champion to be shelved.
Fortunately, that afternoon, the National Team called to apologize for the incident and promised that their chief commander, Ling Fei, and deputy commander, Zhu Yuping, would lead a team of several National Team Champion members to support the show later.
With this promise, the Wonderful Life production team's accumulated dissatisfaction instantly vanished.
Everyone just thought this was compensation from the National Team to the production team, but only Wang Xiang knew that the National Team's main goal in coming together this time was probably Mu Li.
Wang Xiang even specifically asked Mu Li about this issue.
However, Mu Li seemed completely unconcerned: "Let them come, it'll be good publicity for the production team."
Apparently, Mu Li also knew that the National Team was coming for him, but that didn't stop him from continuing to be a regular guest at Mushroom House.
Just as the two National Team members left, two veteran film and television figures arrived. Huang Xiaochu and Teacher He were very familiar with them, but the younger generation could only serve as background.
Soon, this recording of Wonderful Life came to an end, with the next recording scheduled for a month later.
After finishing work here, the next item on the agenda was the recording of Wu Ha a week later. Coincidentally, this recording of Wu Ha was also in South Island.
"Why are all these production teams flocking to South Island recently?" Mu Li couldn't help but complain.
Mu Li had originally thought he had a week to rest in Yangcheng, but he immediately received a notification from Liu Yun—to prepare for album recording.
Before boarding the plane, Mu Li sent one last message to Fu Peiyao: "I'm going back to Modu!"
At a launch event for a famous brand in Imperial Capital, Fu Peiyao had just sat down to rest when she heard her phone's notification sound.
She picked it up and glanced at it, a sweet smile appearing on her lips.
"Xiao Zhu, is our schedule in Imperial Capital finished?" Fu Peiyao asked her assistant, Xiao Zhu.
"Today is the last event," Xiao Zhu said after checking the schedule. "We'll rest tonight and go back to Modu tomorrow morning. In the afternoon, we'll practice the dance for the Idol Project theme song, and the day after tomorrow, we'll prepare for the first recording of Idol Project."
"Then there's no time tomorrow either?" Fu Peiyao's eyes suddenly lit up: "Then change the flight to today's? I want to go back to Modu today."
Xiao Zhu frowned, checked the time, and reminded her: "If you leave today, you can only take the 10 PM flight. Are you sure you want to take such a late flight?"
"Didn't you always say you hated staying up late, that staying up late is a woman's biggest enemy? Why are you willing to take a 10 PM flight back now?" Xiao Zhu muttered incessantly.
"Wait!" Xiao Zhu's expression changed, and her gaze towards Fu Peiyao also showed a hint of ambiguity. "You're so eager to go back to Modu, could it be... if you count the time, someone must have almost finished recording Wonderful Life, right?"
"What Wonderful Life? I don't know anything about it." Fu Peiyao pretended not to know anything.
"Then it's decided! The rest is up to you, Xiao Zhu." After speaking, Fu Peiyao immediately picked up her phone and replied to the message she had just received: I have a 10 PM flight tonight.
After sending the message, Fu Peiyao couldn't help but stare at the message bar and giggle.
Seeing Fu Peiyao like this, Xiao Zhu couldn't help but sigh, putting a hand to her forehead: "Being in love is truly hopeless."
Two hours later, as Mu Li got off the plane, he saw the message and couldn't help but curve his lips into an arc: "Received."
Soon after, he took Togekiss to the studio. Compared to his last visit, the studio was basically complete; though small, it had everything.
Assistant Yang Yitong and Liu Yun had already arrived at the studio, waiting for Mu Li.
Upon seeing Mu Li, Liu Yun couldn't help but complain first: "I've found that hiring an assistant for you is a waste. Yitong followed you to Wonderful Life and came back after less than two days, saying she was completely useless."
Mu Li also scratched his head a little sheepishly and explained: "Next time we go to Wonderful Life, let's not bring an assistant. The main thing is that makeup and everything else are completely unnecessary. Besides the first day when I put on a little foundation, the rest of the time was either spent collecting seafood or fishing. Even if I put on makeup, it would be gone in less than an hour."
"Alright, we didn't know that before," Liu Yun understood. "We'll pay attention next time. But you're amazing, going once and becoming a regular, directly taking down Director Wang's two biggest outdoor variety shows."
"Oh, that's just because Teacher Huang and Teacher He are easy to talk to," Mu Li said modestly. "By the way, is there any important work you called me here for this time?"
As soon as this was mentioned, Liu Yun suddenly showed a mischievous smile: "Can you dance?"
?? Mu Li's face had two big question marks on it. "Dance? Me?"
Mu Li couldn't help but recall his seemingly untamed movements during the recording of Wu Ha earlier and immediately denied: "No, I can't, not even a little."
Liu Yun laughed: "It's fine, I was just asking."
"Oh, I see!" Mu Li couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"Since you can't dance, then congratulations," Liu Yun said with a mischievous smile, "Congratulations on getting a free opportunity to learn to dance."
?? Mu Li couldn't believe what his ears had heard. "No, Sister Liu, are you serious?"
Liu Yun tried to hold back her laughter and handed her phone to Mu Li. Mu Li saw that the screen displayed a message from the Idol Project production team to Liu Yun: "We have invited a teacher to choreograph 'stubborn'. Please inform Teacher Mu that he also needs to complete the dance for 'stubborn' with the other teachers during the theme song performance segment."
Mu Li immediately froze. He looked at Liu Yun in disbelief and asked, "They didn't say anything about dancing back then?"
Liu Yun rolled her eyes exasperatedly and said, "It's Idol Project, a show that cultivates idols, so of course they have to sing and dance! I thought you knew."
"I know, I know... but I didn't expect that the one dancing would also be me." Mu Li felt like he was doomed.
"It's okay, there are four other mentors who will be publicly humiliated with you," Liu Yun couldn't help but laugh. "Isn't Teacher Xu Yunyi also participating?"
"Right!" Mu Li's eyes lit up. "As long as I'm not the only one being publicly humiliated, then it's fine."
Seeing this, Yang Yitong couldn't help but interject: "Why don't you look at Teacher Xu Yunyi's past resume? He came from an early talent show."
With that, Yang Yitong directly played a video of Xu Yunyi's singing and dancing performance from a previous talent show.
Liu Yun almost burst out laughing: "It's okay, you still have two days."
"Two days??" Mu Li felt like the sky was falling.
"Oh, right, to be precise, you only have one day tomorrow, because the official recording is the day after tomorrow," Liu Yun said. "You need to perform the dance with the other mentors after the contestants' first performance."
"Heh heh, let me be destroyed." Mu Li collapsed onto the sofa.
"Besides this, you have an even more important matter," Liu Yun continued. "It's time to prepare your album."
"Ah?" Speaking of the album, Mu Li immediately sat up. "Aren't we waiting? I feel my current singing level isn't quite enough."
Liu Yun shook her head: "I'm telling you to start preparing now, at least begin the production. This will take a lot of time, which should be enough for you to improve."
"That's true." Mu Li also knew that producing an album wasn't a matter of a day or two. From determining the album's title and content to producing the album content, and then promoting it after release, all require time.
"Have you thought about the album's theme?" Liu Yun asked curiously.
"Theme?" Mu Li thought for a moment. "This album will be about my past university life. It's perfect to include the two songs I recorded earlier."
Mu Li had been thinking about his first album for a long time. In the end, he chose friendship over love, as there had been no love in his past 22 years of life.
Besides the already produced "like you as a friend" and "stubborn," he also needed to write 8 related songs.
However, he already had choices in mind for these songs.
"Besides these, I have good news and bad news for you," Liu Yun said. "Which one do you want to hear first?"
Mu Li blinked and replied: "Either is fine, whatever you want to reveal."
Liu Yun sighed: "The good news is that your previous live broadcast attracted some fans of 'like you as a friend' to your Weibo."
"And the insignificant bad news is?" Mu Li asked curiously.
"The bad news is they still can't connect you, the person, with that song," Liu Yun said helplessly. "In short, the song is popular, but the person isn't."
"But don't be discouraged, this is only temporary," Liu Yun comforted him. "You are now a regular on two major variety shows, plus appearances on 'I Live Alone' and Idol Project. In a month, anyone who watches variety shows probably won't be able to avoid recognizing you."
"So you also need to speed up your album production, otherwise, if more people recognize you but you have no works for them to listen to, then there's really nothing you can do," Liu Yun warned. "After all, we're still singers, and we should focus on songs. Variety shows are just a means of promotion."
"Alright, I'll write the other 8 songs as soon as possible, Sister Liu. You can also help me find suitable music programs I can participate in during this time," Mu Li said.
For Mu Li, writing songs wasn't a difficult task; the challenge was choosing suitable songs from the vast library in his mind.
After returning from the studio, Mu Li began searching for topics related to this album.
The theme of this album was graduation season and friendship, which was also the main theme of Mu Li's life for the past twenty-two years. For this, he hoped to deliver a perfect answer sheet to himself, and this album was his answer sheet for youth.
He created a document and named the album: "Youth Journey."